Military drops requirement for prompt investigation into sex cases – cases take on average 7 months to complete

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says providing support to the victims of sexual impropriety is a priority for his government and the Canadian Forces.

But the report issued Tuesday by Auditor General Michael Ferguson raises doubt about those claims.

Support for victims has been lacking, according to the Auditor General. “Victims did not always have easy access to the right services at the right time, the auditor concluded. “We also found that not all support service providers had sufficient training to adequately respond to victims.”

Ferguson’s report also found that there were delays in investigating cases of sexual impropriety in the Canadian Forces. The Military Police’s policy required that investigations of potential criminal cases be closed and the results delivered to commanding officers in 30 days or less, the Auditor’s report determined. “Closed” meant that the investigation was concluded, and the decision about whether to lay charges had been made. The policy also required that investigators provide written justification in the file if the investigation did not meet the 30-day standard.

Of the 46 Military Police cases of inappropriate sexual behaviour in the sample the Auditor General looked at, 35 were closed. Of those, only 4 were closed in 30 days or less. The remaining 31 cases took an average of seven months to close, and there was no written justification in over half of them, Ferguson found.

What did the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal do to deal with this issue?

“In July 2018, the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal changed the Military Police’s policy so that it no longer included the requirement to close a case within 30 days,” the Auditor noted in Tuesday’s report. “The updated policy stated that investigations must be conducted as quickly and efficiently as possible, with regard to both complexity and severity. It also required a written explanation in the file if there had been no meaningful investigative activity for 30 days.”